Luka's POV
We scoured the park like people possessed.
Every minute that passed without seeing Elliot felt like an hour—a slow, suffocating eternity where my heartbeat was the only sound I could hear over the blood rushing in my ears.
Valeria’s breath came out in sharp, broken bursts beside me. Her eyes darted wildly between faces, benches, shadows; every patch of movement pulling her toward false hope. My throat was dry, my chest tight, every nerve in my body stretched to its limit.
Then she stopped suddenly, right in the middle of the path, her face pale and trembling.
“This is your fault.”
Her voice cut through the air like glass breaking. She turned to me sharply, eyes red-rimmed, glistening with tears she refused to let fall. “If you hadn’t shown up—if you hadn’t started that ar
